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I couldn't bring myself to watch Tsuki ga Kirei at first as the idea of a romance story between two 'middle schoolers' didn't really appeal to me at all. More often or not, I find a good story is more enjoyable when you are able to self-insert, so knowing these characters were somewhere between 13 and 15 years old didn't excite me at all - especially seeing the former age is now a decade past.

Fortunately, I was bored enough to give it a go, and as it turned out, Tsuki ga Kirei was nothing like I expected.

Rather than a story of self-inserting ... to find enjoyment and relatability to the characters and their actions, Tsuki ga Kirei is a story that had me reminiscing my school years to heights I've never experienced before. This show managed to captivate me, filling me with nostalgia of my own high school romances, thanks to the brilliantly realistic portrayal of two 15-year old's falling in love.

Akane and Kotarou are two very shy 15-year-olds that appear to pick up an interest for one another the first moment they saw each other. Their shyness truly needs to be emphasised, these two teenagers may never have spoken to one another their whole final year in middle-school had it not been for a series of coincidences and situations leading to them exchanging social media details to help prepare for a upcoming school sports festival.

Both characters capture exactly what it's like to be a shy teenager falling in love. I don't think I've seen a better representation of shyness in adolescence before in any story I have seen. So often do I see characters that are written to be permanently shy, but that's now how it works in real life. Shyness can come and go in sudden waves, from one moment finding it difficult to say a word, to having a heated and enjoyable conversation the next, only for the shyness to return when you've had enough time to think. Shy people can force themselves when needed to be vocal, even if only temporary, and Tsuki ga Kirei captures that reality of shyness perfectly.

Most impressive to me is the phone messages sent between Akane and Kotarou. While finding difficulty to talk to each other in person at times, their interactions on their social media app were completely different. These conversations were generally filled with confidence and energy. That didn't mean their shyness was gone completely, it was blatantly obvious by their facial expressions and actions those messages were often hard to send and waiting for a reply seemed agonising. Finally, the other party would always be filled with happiness and excitement whenever they got a reply.

Appropriately, their conversations online also appeared to be very, very real. So real, I could swear I've had so many of these conversations myself playing out so similarly in years past.

The scenes Akane and Kotarou shared were so insanely sweet, more often than not while watching I had a grin from ear to ear. I was so grateful to finally see another anime romance where the relationships begin early, not at the end. It was also enjoyable to see them slowly grow more accustomed to each other as the story went on, finally reaching a point where they could share emotions they wouldn't have dared shown earlier in their relationship.

As well as the romance, both Akane and Kotarou have their own goals and motivations. Kotarou wants to be a novelist, while Akane is very good at running. These desires for the both of them were often overshadowed by their relationship, however their perceptions of their hobbies do grow as the show goes on.

Moving away from the plot and characters, the story also features some excellent shorts after the credits of most episodes. They typically range anywhere between 10 and 30 seconds each and give an opportunity to flesh out some of the other characters a bit that I often wished had a little more screen time. I think I would really appreciate some OVA's, even if only filled with these shorts.

Around episode seven the animation drops off a bit. It doesn't stay poor permanently, but a few scenes do feel a little incomplete. I can only imagine they will be touched up in a Blu-ray copy later down the line. Given it wasn't for an extended period, and the series is slice of life, not action, I'm compelled to let it slide but it's not something I would have been happy to put up with had it spanned half or more of the show.

It's also worth noting Tsuki ga Kirei is an original project by studio feel. most recently known for their adaptation for the second season of Yahari ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. The Director, Seiji Kishi, is most notable for his work directing Angel Beats, while script writer Yuuko Kakihara has done scripts for various anime including the recent anime Orange and Sakamichi no Apollon.

At the very least, I recommend giving it a try, perhaps you'll also be fortunate to get far more than you bargained for as I did.

If you're looking for a conclusive romance that has an actual conclusion that feels almost unrivalled outside of Shoujo and Josei demographics, Tsuki ga Kirei is for you.

This review contains spoilers that may ruin your experience watching the show. You can’t review this show very well without them, so please watch the show first before reading this review.

This show started out painfully slow. The characters received very little development individually, and plot seemed to be far from any form of existence. I was about to drop it and not look back.

A curve ball was thrown that I couldn’t have seen coming from a mile way during episode 4. The show seemed so light-hearted, the chances of a main character dying was not something I foresaw, nor expected. I wasn’t expecting those themes ... in this show, though maybe just I didn’t look deep enough.

It was already made evident that the goblins weren’t “just” monsters. They seemed to fear death; they didn’t want to die. They had enough intelligence to understand and comprehend the world around them, what magic was, and who their enemies were. It made me question the moralities of Ranta mercilessly killing a goblin in the early few episodes.

Looking back now after completing the final episode my opinion has slightly changed of the first three episodes. Mostly in the areas of team-building, where a group of unwanted and inexperienced individuals were forced to group up in order to survive in the world. They weren’t very good at it though, they stumbled around and almost died multiple times. They recognised that everyone wasn’t very good either. I feel like the author of the light novel paid a lot of attention to minor details than I first saw.

Manato’s death served as a turning point of the series. Some characters in particular received a lot of development. Haru was forced into the limelight as the new group leader, a position he never wanted to be in, a choice he was never able to make. His personality evolved a lot, or at least became more evident as the show went on. As a leader, he was in a position where his caring nature leadership qualities could truly be utilized. Prior to Maru’s death, he strikes me as a person who although still cared about those around him, preferred to watch from the outside, never stepping up to take responsibility.

Ranta was an annoying brat whose feelings towards the group seemed to change as the show went on. At the very least, he began to realise how the bluntness of his personality affected the people around him. He showed guilt towards it in the final episode, although it didn’t stop him from being a smart arse one more time. I was happy to see he realised the effects of what he was saying.

Mary’s stuck up attitude made it seem she cared very little for those around her. Unfortunately I felt the reason behind her attitude to be very cliché, I saw it from a mile away when it became obvious she wasn’t happy spending her mana. Manato ran out of mana too, which led to that conclusion rather quickly. In terms of her development though, stuck up bitch to best girl in 4 episodes? What can I say?

Manato was also not a character that was ever forgotten either. Very often you’ll see death in anime quickly forgotten about by the characters, never showing any form of personal attachment, possibly ever again past the next episode. They always had him on their mind. They didn’t want to take risks for the sake of being a hero, they didn’t want to go through the suffering of losing another friend again.

I didn’t feel the remaining characters got enough development later in the show to comment on further and more episodes would have been needed to accomplish that. I do want to say I’m very happy with the range of character personalities the story has without overusing archtypes. My only qualm would be with Shinhoru, seemingly being the only one that was a true archtype/trope girl. All the others seemed to have their own charms and quirks, like Mogozo very politely saying “thankyou” every time he went to make a big strike.

Having Mary’s friends return in the mines was definitely a highlight for me. It was revealed earlier in the show when Manato died that the dead rise if they are not turned to ash within a set amount of time. So often, a plot device such as this gets completely looked over later in the show, leaving some major inconsistencies. Honestly it almost bothers me that I have to praise it for this; it should be expected by default. Unfortunately, this is often not the case in many airing shows.

Where I’m critical about the story is its lack of direction. It’s strange, I’m not sure if I need to be critical about it. There always seemed to be a goal. In the first few episodes it was defeating a goblin efficiently. Later it was finding a new healer. Taking revenge. Helping Mary get over her past. Defeating the kobolds. Even at the very least, they wanted to find out who they were themselves as they had forgotten their pasts.

One part of me argues that because there was no pre-defined goal there wasn’t much of a story. But there was always a story despite that. There was always a reason behind what they were doing. Nothing they did felt pointless. But we never found out how they got there. Though I can’t blame it for that as the light novels continue far past this season. With all that being said, an over-arching plot of some kind definitely would have helped this show by a considerable margin.

The voice acting was another highlight for this show for me. Yume’s voice actress stood out to me in particular. I’ve never criticised someone’s voice acting before so I’m finding it hard to find the words to support what I want to say, but her voice acting had a legitimacy about it. She wasn’t trying to be a moe blob at the very least, she seemed like a real person talking. Mogzo and Shihoru’s voice actors also had a legitimacy behind their voices. I always enjoyed hearing the three of them speak. Interestingly enough, all three are very new voice actors/actresses to the scene, with Mogozo in particular starring in his first major role. I’m looking forward to hearing more from them in the future.

Lastly, one of the highlights was the shows aesthetics. And wow, every scene was like a painting, I can’t recall ever seeing a scene that felt lazy. Character designs were on point too, though I must admit I prefer their light novel designs more, I guess they might have been hard to replicate in an animated form especially with time constraints. I’m glad the studio was able to give justice to how pretty the world was, especially since the characters liked the views.

I think this will be an anime I will remember for a long time, particularly in its standards set with its character development and how it turned itself from a 3 to an 8. Season 2 announcement when?

+ Character development
+ Aesthetics
+ Fitting soundtrack
+ Consistent plot devices

- Slow pacing at times, particularly episodes 1-3.

Strory: 6, Art: 10, Sound: 8, Character: 9, Enjoyment: 9
Overall: 8 (this score is not intended to be an average of the above).